Points of View

November 26, 2013

Latham & Watkins has reached a settlement with a former legal secretary who accused the firm of pregnancy discrimination.

Demetria Peart, who worked at the firm’s Washington office as a legal secretary from April 2007 to January 2008, said she was fired because the firm didn't want to make accommodations while she was pregnant. The firm denied discriminating against Peart, and argued the case should be dismissed because Peart failed to meet the minimum legal standards to support her claims.

In late October, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer said Peart could move ahead with some of her claims. Yesterday, lawyers for Peart and the firm
notified the judge they had reached an agreement and planned to jointly ask the court to dismiss the case.

November 25, 2013

Williams & Connolly can continue to represent the son of one of the firm’s partners in a business dispute in court, a Washington federal judge has
ruled.

Brendan Sullivan III, the son of Williams & Connolly partner Brendan Sullivan Jr., sued his former business partner Robert Elwood in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the two had a falling out over management of a multimillion-dollar youth sports program.

Sullivan accused Elwood of stealing from the business—Headfirst Baseball LLC and related entities—and interfering after he was fired. Elwood, in his counterclaims, said Sullivan knew about and approved of his spending practices, and claimed Sullivan was trying to push him out to avoid sharing profits as the company became more valuable.

November 21, 2013

The Senate today invoked the so-called "nuclear option" and stripped the ability of the minority party to block presidential nominations—a move that will smooth the path to confirmation for President Obama's judicial picks.

The 52-48 historic vote overturned a Senate rule that stood for more than a century. The rules previously required 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and advance a nomination to an up-or-down confirmation vote, which requires a simple majority.

Now, a simple majority can overcome a filibuster for all judicial nominees except those for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Democrats proposed a major change to Senate rules today that would streamline the confirmation process for all judicial nominees other than those for the U.S. Supreme Court.

After Republicans blocked three of President Obama's nominees to a key federal appeals court in Washington in the past three weeks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called all senators to the floor to detail his proposal. Reid proposed the rule change this morning.

The change, often referred to as the "nuclear option," would strip the ability of the minority party to filibuster judicial nominees. The rules currently require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and advance a nomination to an up-or-down confirmation vote, which requires a simple majority.

November 20, 2013

A Senate committee today quickly approved the nomination of former U.S. Department of Defense general counsel Jeh Johnson to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Less than a minute after the committee met, the members used a voice vote to approve the nomination of Johnson, now a litigation partner in the Washington office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

"He is a strong leader, I think well-prepared to face the challenges that will await him," committee Chairman Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said before the vote.

November 19, 2013

Hundreds of thousands of dollars tied to Iranian financial institutions and frozen by U.S. banks remain off-limits to terrorism victims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today. The problem,
the court said, was the lack of proof the Iranian government owned the bank accounts at issue.

Families of victims of the 1996 bombings at the Khobar Towers apartment complex in Saudi Arabia sued the Iranian government in 2000, accusing Iran of supporting the terrorist group behind the attack. The families won a default judgment—Iran never participated in the case—and a judge awarded approximately $591 million in damages.

The plaintiffs began what U.S. District Senior Judge Royce Lamberth once described as the "often-frustrating and always-arduous" task of finding Iranian assets to satisfy judgments. In August 2011, Lamberth ordered Sprint Nextel Corp., to pay more than $610,000 it owed to an Iranian state telecommunications agency to the plaintiffs instead.

November 18, 2013

The Senate tonight blocked the nomination of Robert Wilkins to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, meaning Republicans have thwarted all three of President Obama's nominees to the key federal appeals court.

As expected, the nomination of Wilkins failed to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. The Senate voted 53-38, meaning that the nomination cannot advance to an up-or-down confirmation vote, which requires only a majority.

Now the nomination of Wilkins, a judge on Washington's federal district court, joins two other D.C. Circuit nominations in the purgatory of the Senate’s confirmation process — still alive, but unable to get a vote. Republicans similarly blocked the nominations of Patricia Millett and Cornelia "Nina" Pillard in the past three weeks.

A lawyer for Lance Armstrong today asked a Washington federal judge to dismiss the government's fraud case against the famed cyclist, arguing prosecutors failed to meet deadlines to file their claims.

U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins did not rule on the motions to dismiss filed by Armstrong and the other defendants. The judge said at the end of today's hearing he doubted he would dismiss the case in its entirety, but didn’t indicate which defendants he might be inclined to dismiss.

The U.S. Department of Justice accused Armstrong and others of making false claims while receiving millions of dollars in sponsorships from the U.S. Postal Service. Prosecutors said Armstrong's use of performance-enhancing substances violated the sponsorship agreement.

November 15, 2013

A Washington federal judge today
denied an injunction that would have blocked D.C. Council legislation delaying the city's first election for an attorney general. The problem, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said, was that the legislation in question wasn't formally a law yet.

Paul Zukerberg, a local criminal defense lawyer and former candidate for the council, sued the city challenging a measure passed on Oct. 1 pushing the attorney general election back from 2014 to 2018. Zukerberg sued as a private citizen and also recently declared his intent to run for the attorney general job if the election went forward.

Zukerberg argued that a preliminary injunction was necessary given fast-approaching deadlines related to the 2014 election. Boasberg said that because the law in question wasn't final—it's awaiting approval by Congress—the court lacked jurisdiction to consider Zukerberg's challenge.

November 14, 2013

The Senate will vote on the nomination of Robert Wilkins to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit next week, when he is expected to be blocked by Republicans who say the key appeals court doesn't need any more judges.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today filed cloture on Wilkins' nomination, meaning he will need 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster. Wilkins, now a judge Washington’s federal district court, would get an up-or-down confirmation vote, which only requires a majority, if his nomination advances.

Republicans thwarted in a similar way the nominations of two other D.C. Circuit nominees—first, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld partner Patricia Millett on Oct. 31, then Georgetown law professor Cornelia "Nina" Pillard on Nov. 12.